Ap,K'Taka Farmers Suicides Expose Chinks In Green Revolution

The reported suicides in southern and western states by scores of cotton farmers, caught in a vicious circle of debt and poverty, expose the chinks in the countrys much-vaunted green revolution.

The fruits of the agricultural strategy adopted in the late sixties to raise productivity seem to have benefitted mainly the haves among the farming community, farm experts say.

The strategy, popularly known as the green revolution that involved the introduction of hybrid varieties of rice and wheat in the late sixties, transformed India from a basket case to food self-sufficiency.

Scores of farmers in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have taken the extreme step of ending their lives. In the last four weeks alone, six farmers have reportedly committed suicide in the two states and Maharashtra as they were neck-deep in debt and could in no way compensate for their crop failure.

The farmers plight figured in the Lok Sabha during the debate over Atal Bihari Vajpayees confidence motion recently.

Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy, CPI member from Nalgonda in Andhra Pradesh, who raised the issue, said suicides by farmers have reached alarming proportions. He urged the government to announce a moratorium on loans small farmers have taken from private money lenders, cooperative societies, banks and other financial institutions. He also demanded an immediate ban on companies facing charges of having supplied spurious pesticides and adulterated seeds. Although the suicides are extreme cases, these expose the weaknesses in the basic ingredients of the agricultural strategy, experts say.

Cotton farmers are particularly vulnerable because investment in the crop and its protection from pests and diseases is comparatively high. As a result the level of indebtedness also becomes high, says M K Rajan, who till recently was agriculture secretary to the Indian government.

In Andhra Pradesh and some other cotton tracts, the amount of borrowing by farmers is particularly heavy. They take loans, often at exorbitant rates of interest, from private money lenders in the hope of reaping a bumper harvest and making huge profits. Consequently any crop failure leaves them broken-hearted and penniless.

Often, in a bid to keep pests at bay, the farmers also give more sprays of costly pesticides to the crop than necessary, little realising that they are not a sufficient safeguard unless the entire area resorts to integrated pest management as a community effort. Indiscriminate use of pesticides, experts warn, does more harm than good.

A key issue is the delivery of inputs to farmers, particularly agricultural credit to small and marginal farmers. Out of about 100 million farming families in the country, over 75 per cent are categorised as marginal farmers operating holdings of one hectare or below in size.

A farmer needs credit not only for investment in agriculture but also for meeting critical needs of farm operations. Employment of farm labour, purchase of fertiliser, pesticides, farm implements and other inputs all require resources which poorer farmers find it difficult to raise.

Despite all claims of increasing agricultural credit every year the target is to increase credit support by 25 per cent annually the system meets hardly a small portion of the farmers needs.

The bottom line is: what is the credit dispersed per unit of land? It is far too low compared to the requirements, says Rajan. He points out that the yield levels of crops are high in those regions where the credit supply is high.

Senior officials are of the view that the agricultural extension system also needs to be made more active and efficient to educate the farmers on proper adoption of technological advances in farming.

Agriculture is subject to the vagaries of nature and it was to mitigate the risks caused by floods and drought that a crop insurance scheme was evolved by the government. Despite some inherent weaknesses, the comprehensive crop insurance scheme covers a few crops, but not cotton, because of certain difficulties in correctly assessing the yields of this crop, the officials say.

The suicides have brought to the fore such vital issues as the deficiencies in the agricultural credit system and inadequacies of extension services to take the production technology from lab to the land.

Suicides by some farmers is only a tip of the problem. Most important is how to help the farming community, particularly the have-nots in the community, to increase both production and productivity on a sustainable basis.

The situation, admit officials and experts , calls for policy initiatives by the new government to protect the farmers. There is a need to strengthen the inspection machinery of agricultural departments in the states to prevent the sale of sub-standard or spurious pesticides and insecticides by unscrupulous traders exploiting gullible farmers.

Cotton needs a separate insurance scheme where the premia could be higher than in other crops. Experts say that evolving an insurance scheme for cotton farmers, particularly for small farmers who suffer most in case of crop failure, will be a challenge to the new BJP-led government which has given high priority to agricultural development in its national agenda.